


Call Out My Name

by The_Lionheart



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Movies)
Genre: Best Friends, Friendship, Friendships disintegrating because of no good reason, Implied Child Abuse, Justin and Tony are both stubborn fools, Obie is a dick, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-27
Updated: 2012-06-27
Packaged: 2017-11-08 16:55:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/445410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Lionheart/pseuds/The_Lionheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>I'll come runnin' to see you again.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Call Out My Name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [invictofiction](https://archiveofourown.org/users/invictofiction/gifts).



> Vague implications of child abuse (it's a story about Tony Stark's childhood, naturally.) and even vaguer implications of inappropriate sexual contact between a middle-aged woman and a minor (Tony again.) 99% of the story is about Justin Hammer, though.

He's four and “precocious.” He reads at a fifth-grade level and likes math and numbers, and when his Daddy comes home from work at Martin Marietta he climbs up into Daddy's lap and looks at Daddy's work and thinks that he's the happiest person in the world.

He's four and he has a Nanny and a Daddy, and he's dimly aware that other kids have Mommies. He has a Daddy who loves him and a Nanny who takes care of him, and Mister Jenkins who takes him places.

He is four and Daddy gets a New Job, and they leave Florida and Nanny and Mister Jenkins. There's a new lady who says she's his Nanny, and he doesn't believe her. Daddy's new Boss comes to Daddy's office while he's helping Daddy put some pictures on the walls. He stops, glancing over the rim of his glass, and says, “I didn't know you had a kid. I've got a son about his age.”

Daddy smiles over at him, and later Daddy's Boss says he'll bring his little boy over to play sometime.

Justin is a little nervous, but Daddy seems really happy about it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Justin is four and Daddy's boss walks into a room in front of a lady with long dark hair and a little kid, with light brown curls. The kid's name is Anthony, and they have to be friends now.

“Hi,” Justin says carefully. “I'm Justin. I'm four.”

“I'm three,” Anthony says brightly, “I'm Anth'ny. Do you like cars?”

“I do,” Justin tells him. Justin has a lot of cars, and they spend the afternoon driving Justin's cars around and around the floor under the table. Then New Nanny stops them so they can eat some oatmeal cookies.

“I like it here,” Anthony says happily, and Justin grins at him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anthony comes to visit every day, and it's _great_. They always play cars and eat cookies. Sometimes Justin reads to Anthony, even though Anthony can read by himself, and sometimes Anthony doesn't want to do anything, so Justin parks his cars on Anthony's arms until Anthony laughs at them.

Justin goes to Anthony's house for his fourth birthday, and it's not much fun. There are too many people, and Justin is the only kid there. He doesn't know where Anthony is until he goes to the bathroom and Anthony pokes his head out from under the sink.

“Justin,” Anthony hisses, and Justin makes a face.

“I'm going _pee_ ,” Justin tells him firmly.

“Are those people still here?” Anthony asks, and Justin nods.

“You gotta come back out there with me, Anthony. It's boring with nobody to talk to,” Justin tells him. He finishes up and washes his hands, and Anthony's still hiding under the sink. Justin waits, and waits, and finally he just sits down on the floor and watches Anthony to see if he'll come out of there.

“Dad said not to embarrass him in front of those people,” Anthony says finally. “So I'm staying up here.”

“If you come down, we could have birthday cake after lunch,” Justin tells him. “I really like birthday cake. I wish I could just eat the cake first and the other stuff later.”

“When we're big, we'll just eat cake and ice cream,” Anthony nods. “We won't have anybody telling us what to do.”

“Yeah,” Justin agrees, “but right now we're little, so we gotta wait til after lunch. Come on, Anthony, let's go.”

“Okay,” Anthony says in a little voice, and Justin reaches out and holds his hand.

“I'll walk down with you. You can say I got lost and you had to help me,” Justin says, and Anthony perks up. They both smile, and Justin adds, “Happy birthday, Anthony.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Justin is seven and Anthony is six and there is a big, gleaming engine between them. Justin runs his hand down its side, admiring the sleek metal before giving Anthony a huge smile.

“This is so neat, Anthony. What are you gonna do with it?”

Anthony shrugs, frowning and rubbing at a bruise high on his cheek. “I'm gonna take it apart. It's stupid.” Justin pulls his hand back from the engine, shaking his head slowly.

“Noo-oo, Anthony, it's not stupid. You built it yourself, that's really cool. It's a lot bigger and cooler than the circuit boards you used to make.”

“You _still_ make circuit boards,” Anthony points out, and Justin shrugs.

“I like it. But you made an entire engine, Anthony. You should put it in a car and drive it!”

“It's too small,” Anthony scowls. “It doesn't fit any cars. _It's stupid_.” Justin thinks for a minute, still running his hand along the sides of the engine, until the metal is warmed up.

“Did your dad say it's stupid, Anthony?” Justin asks finally, and Anthony bursts into tears.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Justin is ten and Anthony is nine, and Justin and Anthony are sitting in the treehouse they built together in Justin's backyard with Justin's Daddy. They're eating cheeseburgers and reading Anthony's Captain America comics. The cheeseburgers are the best- Mister Jarvis makes them himself, and he always makes lots so that Justin and Anthony can eat as many as they want.

“Do you ever wonder if you could do this?” Justin asks, licking grease from the burgers off his fingers. “Build a machine that makes Captain America. Do you think you could do it when we're older?”

“I dunno,” Anthony admits. “I like machines. But there's... other stuff. Genetic stuff. Chemical serums. I don't know if I'm into biochemistry.”

“Maybe we can just contract that part out,” Justin points out. “If you could build the machine, I could get us funding and set up a screening process to find somebody cool. And we could get someone to make the serum. That's how they did it the first time.”

“We can't get anybody to make the serum,” Anthony says, after thinking seriously for a minute. “Nobody can do it. That's why nobody ever made it a second time- the _only_ guy who could do it died.”

“Aw, Anthony,” Justin complains. “That sucks.” The pages of the comic books rustle, and Justin glances over, to see Anthony smiling at him. Justin grins back, nudging Anthony's leg with his foot. “What is it?”

“You wanna try something?” Anthony asks, and pulls a bottle out of his backpack. He opens it and holds it out for Justin to take a sip, and the smell makes Justin rock back on his butt with a grimace.

“Jeez, Anthony, what the heck is that? Beer?”

Anthony scoffs at him, taking a sip. “Nah, it's scotch. It was in my Dad's office.”

“You stole alcohol from your Dad?” Justin asks, horrified. He is torn between telling Anthony to put it away, _it's bad for kids_ , and telling Anthony to put it back, _if your dad finds out he'll kill you_.

“Don't be such a baby, Justin,” Anthony says, and Justin buries his face in the comic book, his cheeks burning.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Justin is thirteen and it's Anthony's thirteenth birthday, and Justin is fixing Anthony's tie for him, even though Anthony's hair is totally crazy and he's not sure he can make the collar of Anthony's shirt cover the bruise-like hickey on the side of Anthony's neck.

“Are you gonna be okay?” Justin asks softly, and Anthony blinks a few times, shaking his head a little. Justin sighs, patting Anthony's shoulder. “It's okay, Anthony. She's gone now.”

“Are you kidding me?” Anthony whines, his words slurring. “We were just getting started. She let me touch her _boobs,_ Justin.”

“She looks like she's your Mom's age, for cryin' out loud,” Justin hisses, eyes widening. “Anthony, that's not okay, man. We need to tell someone-”

“You're not telling my fucking parents, Justin,” Anthony snaps, his face flushing. “They'll just get mad at me.”

“I'm telling Mr. Stane,” Justin says firmly, and Anthony grabs his arm, his eyes huge.

“Don't,” Anthony begs, and Justin can feel his resolve crumble.

“Only if she stays away from us, Anthony,” he says, breathing out a sigh. “But stay with me today, okay?”

“Okay! Okay, Justin, you got it, babe,” Anthony laughs, giving him a thumb's up. Somehow Justin loses track of him, anyway.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“I got in! I'm going to Harvard, Dad,” Justin says happily, dumping his backpack on the kitchen table. His Dad leans over for a brief smooch on Justin's forehead, even though he's fifteen and way too old for that shit. “What's for dinner?”

“Ordering in, whatever you want,” Dad smiles, even though he looks ragged and tired as shit.

“Awesome. Pizza it is,” Justin grins. Dad's smile falters, after a moment.

“Isn't Anthony going to MIT, though?” he asks, and Justin shrugs.

“Well, yeah, so we'll probably see each other all the time,” he says, and clears his throat. “Hey, Dad? Did we know somebody named Jenkins back in Florida?”

“Hmm? Oh, gosh, kiddo. Yeah, he was our gardener down there. Can't believe you remember that,” Dad says, startled. “What had you thinking about him, son?”

“Nothin', I was just, you know. Thinking.” Justin opens their refrigerator, grabbing a can of Pepsi. “Gonna head over to Anthony's, Mr. Jarvis is giving us driving lessons.”

“Okay, Justin, be back by seven to eat, alright?” Dad smiles again, and Justin smiles back at him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Justin is seventeen and Anthony is sixteen and they don't see each other much anymore, even though they still live in walking distance of one another. It's tough for Justin- he's never been good at people, never been good at knowing what they want, how to talk to them. Anthony's is the only _meaningful_ friendship Justin's ever really had, and without him around Justin doesn't know how to act in social situations. It's miserable at Harvard, really.

When they finally meet up for a late lunch, Anthony just sits there and pretends to listen to Justin as he talks about business management and accounting and Public Relations.

“Are you even paying attention, Anthony? One day you're going to have to deal with this stuff, when you're running SI,” Justin mutters, tossing a napkin at Anthony. Anthony grins and dodges it.

“Why should I? That's what I'll have you for,” he teases, stealing a forkful of Justin's pasta. Justin frowns, rubbing at the back of his neck. Anthony's wearing big black Ray-bans, but Justin can still see a livid shiner behind them.

“You said your dad was here to visit you last weekend,” he says slowly, and Anthony glances slyly at him. “Is that- did he do that, Anthony?”

“Come on, Jubby-bear,” Anthony says abruptly, ignoring Justin's groan at the horrible nickname. “I'm going to this party tonight. You're coming too. No excuses.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Justin is eighteen and Anthony is seventeen and the phone in Justin's apartment starts ringing in the middle of the night. It's Anthony, and he's crying. In the morning Justin and Anthony get on a train back to New York. It's weird to get there and not see Mr. Jarvis waiting for them.

Anthony doesn't cry anymore, just stares blankly ahead.

Mr. Jarvis had been driving. His funeral is quiet, with a few family members and Anthony and Justin and Justin's Dad. Anthony spends the night in Justin's room, and doesn't talk to anyone or eat dinner afterward.

It's almost a week before the Starks are put to rest, and afterward Anthony gets messily drunk, and vomits down the side of Justin's Dad's car.

It's a day later when Justin reaches over and nudges Anthony's shoulder.

“I'm really sorry,” he says again, for the fiftieth time. “Especially about Mr. Jarvis. I just... I can't even believe he's really gone, you know?”

“What the hell,” Anthony says after a minute, eyes narrowing. “Jarvis- Jarvis was the _help_ , Justin. My _parents_ died. Why aren't you upset about them?”

“Because your dad was a prick,” Justin says, throwing his hands up. “Because your mom didn't give a shit and your dad was a raging asshole, and Mr. Jarvis actually cared about you, Anthony.”

“Fuck you, Justin, you don't know anything about it,” Anthony snaps, shoving Justin away. “Also, Jesus, nobody even calls me Anthony, I've been telling you for years to call me Tony.”

“Your jackass father's the only person who ever called you Tony,” Justin mutters, and Anthony gets up with a snarl. Justin laughs in his face, half horrified and half furious. “And that growling stuff doesn't scare anyone, Anthony, you look like you're ten years old.”

“Fuck off, Justin!” Anthony yells at him, face turning bright red. “Obie's right about you, you know that? You're just a jealous little asshole, you've _always_ been jealous, because I'm _smarter_ than you are.”

“Jealous? Give me a break,” Justin barks out a laugh, wondering who the hell this Obie chick is. “And smarter? That's debatable, man, because if you were so smart, you'd have figured out by now that your precious father never fucking loved you!”

Anthony throws the first punch, and after about ten minutes of knock-down, drag-out fighting, Anthony shoves Justin away and takes off. It takes Justin five minutes to get himself upright, and another five to realize that _shit, Anthony's gone_. He's nowhere in sight by the time Justin gets to the front door.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A week later, Justin calls and calls and finally Mr. Stane picks up the phone. He promises to pass his apology on to Anthony, but Justin never hears back from him.

Three months later, Justin's Dad is fired, after almost fifteen years at Stark Industries. Furious, Justin takes out loans and sits his Dad down and tells him exactly what to do.

“Call it Hammer Industries,” Justin tells him, because fuck Anthony right in the face.

The first Christmas Justin can remember without Anthony being there, and it's just Justin and his Dad, alone in their house. He sees Anthony in the newspaper, right after New Years, and personally? He thinks he looks like shit.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The first ten years are rough, but Hammer Industries gets a break, landing contracts with a number of manufacturers and communications companies. Justin finally goes back and gets his MBA, even though Anthony's had his doctorate since he was twenty years old. It's just one less thing Anthony can hold over him, and Justin's Dad is beaming and proud at the commencement ceremony.

Eighteen months later, Justin's Dad has a heart-attack, right in the middle of the office, and Justin doesn't understand why his Dad's gone, he was supposed to live forever, they were supposed to do this together, Justin's not _ready_ to lead a company.

On Anthony's thirtieth birthday, Justin calls Anthony up, and leaves him a rambling, stammering voicemail, wishing him a happy birthday.

A few weeks later, Justin and Anthony bump into one another in D.C., and Anthony flirts shamelessly with Justin's girlfriend, offers to take her on a tour of his facility, and whisks her away to a waiting car. She breaks up with Justin three days later, over the phone.

Justin grits his teeth and “accidentally” tells a reporter for a gossip rag that he's seen Anthony with this girl for the past year, and that Anthony's been shopping around for diamonds. The media frenzies and SI's stocks drop a few points, but by the weekend Anthony is seen at parties with a new trio of girls and Justin's ex-girlfriend disappears from the public eye.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ten more years pass, and this is what they look like : Justin's engineers and researchers collaborate together on products that don't change the face of the planet, or even the name of the game. A good third of the products Hammer Industries puts out are working-class versions of some of SI's best gadgets, because people like the flashy features of a Starkphone or a Starkpad or any one of the Stark Industries computers and laptops and notebooks, but mostly they like not going into debt in order to send emails to their kids. That stuff provides the funding for the other two thirds of Hammer Industries' R&D department, right there.

Justin runs into Anthony when Justin's in the middle of securing a contract that allows Hammer Industries to utilize SI's cell towers to provide equivalent network coverage. He's frankly surprised that he hasn't seen Anthony sooner than this, but his dealings with Stane have always been civil- stilted and forced, sure, but civil.

“Hey, you're okay with this, right? I know how much you hate letting other people touch your things,” Justin jokes in front of some reporters and a camera. It's a joke. Anthony, as a child, was generous to a fault, and Justin really can't remember how many times they swapped toys or lunches or shirts over the years.

For a moment, Anthony gives Justin a look of utter disgust, which, frankly, throws Justin right the hell off his game. Then Anthony laughs, briefly, breezing past Justin.

“Yeah, yeah, it's nothing, Hammer. Just let me know when you start pulling military contracts like the rest of the big kids, kay?”

Justin retaliates by buying several companies that manufacture jets, trucks, and the parts and casings for several types of unmanned drones. Two of the companies are solely responsible for producing the drones SI builds for the military, which is hilarious. Justin nudges production costs and profit margins, until the revenue generated by SI is enough to pay each and every one of his employees a great little Christmas bonus.

After that, Justin is granted a seat on the board of SI's directors, and the part of Justin that studied business ethics questions Stane's decision on that one, because surely- as someone who benefits from SI's business but also competes against it- Justin has a conflict of interests, there.

The rest of Justin, however, is oddly glad to have a way to keep track of Anthony now, and more than a little disappointed that Anthony barely makes it to quarterly meetings.

Hammer Industries branches out, starts pursuing other military technologies as the war in the Middle East intensifies. By most meanings of the word, Justin is a success.

Privately, Justin is bored out of his mind. He plays the stock market, mostly for fun, but it enables him to continue to live comfortably while making a (very public) point of donating his entire salary as the CEO of Hammer Industries to various charitable organizations every few years.

His days are distressingly empty, and he cycles through failed hobbies with both desperation and growing annoyance. He sincerely enjoys building houses for Habitat for Humanity, but after two days of clumsy, fumbling work he badly sprains his wrist. Habitat for Humanity thanks him for his effort and makes not-very-veiled requests that he keep his generosity on the monetary side.

He tries his hand at gambling, because he sees Ocean's Eleven and watches some professional poker, but Justin isn't very good at it. He doesn't make friends, and he abandons it after about a month.

He meets a lawyer and she's funny, she's as smart as he is, and she's gorgeous. Unfortunately, three years into their hectic marriage he discovers that she's not particularly loyal, and that she apparently has a “thing” for a much younger man who teaches martial arts. She takes more than Justin would have thought possible in the divorce, and is downright cruel the last few times they speak.

Justin buys the gym where her boyfriend teaches and persuades the management to fire him. It's unbelievably petty and quite possibly illegal, but Justin, at this point, is beyond caring.

Justin goes to Florida and meets Reynold Jenkins, by now an old man, and his son Mark, who's a few years older than Justin is. He hires Mark Jenkins that afternoon, and flies them both to New York. Mark drives Justin's cars, and when Justin travels he goes with him, and eventually they form something like a relationship, and Justin manages not to feel utterly pathetic that the only thing approaching a personal connection in his life is with his driver/sort-of manservant.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anthony goes missing in Afghanistan, and Justin watches the news daily, watches the stock market religiously, and attends every board meeting he can in the three months before they find Anthony again.

They find him and Justin feels his gut settle for the first time in weeks.

It doesn't last. As soon as he's officially _back_ , Anthony makes a very public announcement, stating that he wants to put an end to all weapons production at SI. Obadiah Stane convinces the board to file an injunction against Anthony, and for a moment Justin thinks, for no reason, _Obie_. The name is a memory and over twenty years old, and Justin can't remember where he heard it before.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anthony Stark is Iron Man. Justin's heart stutters and he experiences a pure, insane moment of _want_ and _outrage_. That could have been Justin, if he'd wanted to do that, to be that. Justin could have been a part of this, if Anthony hadn't shut his best and only friend out of his life like that.

Anthony sucks. Anthony fucking sucks.

Justin immediately re-assigns forty percent of his R&D department to reproducing the Iron Man suit for widespread military use, because fuck Anthony right in the face, that's why. Also because that's what Justin _does_. Every time Stark Industries comes out with some highfalutin', elitist new gadget that costs an arm and a leg and has features and capabilities beyond what the normal consumer can make use of, Hammer Industries buys a few, reverse-engineers them, and then builds them anew, without the flash and without the baffling extras; dumbed down so that most people can use them and priced down so that most people can afford them.

There is no Iron Man suit available for Justin's people to work backwards from, so they have to start from scratch, with just the idea that it can exist, that it's possible. There are eight prototypes before Justin decides to go with that design and build four dozen of them before he even secures a test pilot for the first live run.

Three hundred pages of release forms and the promise of a frankly fabulous check later, Justin beams as the pilot steps into the suit, declaring it a comfortable fit. Justin asks him to test the mobility of the suit and to turn right.

At this point, it turns into a _fucking nightmare_. They barely manage to get the pilot out of the suit, and Justin pays for his hospital bills and quadruples the original paycheck. The man's family is understanding, and Justin's lawyers draft up an additional settlement and a nondisclosure agreement, and everything seems to go well, but somehow, deep down, Justin knows this is going to come back and bite him in the ass.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It does. In front of a panel of Senators, in a room full of the press, on national television.

Fucking Anthony, with his fucking superiority and his dubiously ethical ability to access video feeds on private servers, who manages to discredit everyone involved with this, out of simple vanity and pride. Fucking Anthony, who seems to think that one famously irresponsible alcoholic with an unimaginably powerful weapon is enough to end all conflict in his lifetime, who seems incapable of realizing that, even if he _was_ reliable enough to count on, he's not going to be around forever. Fucking Anthony, who insults and embarrasses anyone who dares to disagree with him, anyone who dares to think there might be a better, safer option than blindly trusting a spoiled egomaniac.

Justin doesn't even feel bad for that comment about Anthony's father. Anthony threw away fifteen years of friendship over a single fight, Anthony threw Justin's Dad out of a job he loved just for being related to Justin, Anthony has fucked Justin over time and time again, and right now, Justin just wants a little of his own back.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Monaco is a revelation. Justin doesn't even want to go, at first, but he can't quite kill the part of him that's still a kid, the part that remembers that Anthony loves cars and that Anthony built an engine and that cars are something he still has in common with Justin.

That Ivan Vanko is something else, though. Justin is fascinated- the man is clearly just as smart as Anthony, if not smarter, and clearly has none of the advantages that Anthony takes for granted. It's not that hard to find out about Anton Vanko, and it all makes so much sense that Justin curls up in his hotel bed and laughs like a loon. As much as Justin- more than Justin, really- _Vanko gets it_. He gets what a selfish prick Anthony is, the way he just takes and takes and expects other people to kiss his boot for it. He gets what it feels like to have to defend a beloved father against the machinations of a Stark. He gets it.

Justin's not really sure what goes into breaking a man out of prison, and a scary European prison at that. He doesn't really care, though- that's what mercenary groups are for. You pay them, and they legally... ish... do what they're paid to do.

It's just too bad Ivan acts like he can't really speak English most of the time, because Justin would really _like_ , for once, to have a conversation with someone who gets him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ivan Vanko is a fucking prick. Justin is not entirely sure how Anthony's girlfriend is spinning this so that it's Justin's fault, but fuck her, she's a bitch, too.

They put Justin in a cell and Justin thinks long and hard about what he's going to do now.


End file.
